PDAs as a College Notebook?

Eugene asks: "G'day everyone! Here's the deal, I study Engineering in college and therefore, I have to write down LOTS of mathematical formulae and such. Now I heard that students of Law/English/etc. find great use of various PDAs as a notebook replacement(that's pen&paper notebook). I'd like to know if there's a PDA software-solution for quickly writing down math expressions( Something like the equation editor shipped with MS-Word - but if possible with a more intuitive way of entering data). All I could find so far are lots of calculators, that do little in the way of easily entering equations and storing them for later review." Well, that would be one less thing to lug around in the ole backpack. Now if we could only get textboox in digital form...

Comments

Basically, no.

[fm6]

Questions like this make up for all the lame "where is the power button" questions in Ask Slashdot. Cliff, please note. The difference between this question and the kind we all complain about is that it touches on issues way outside the asker's problem.

To wit: where the fuck is our electonic paper already? I've wanted it ever since I saw Captain Kirk using an computer tablet some 35 years ago.

PDAs aren't it. Except for a few people who can do 40 WPM without concentrating using Fitalystamp or something similar, there's no practical input for plain text, never mind math. And how can you possibly keep track of your notes on such a small display? (Even the Newton was too small for this purpose. And of course too big to put in your pocket. The worst of both worlds.)

IBM was on the right track with the Thinkpad 700, which folded flat so you could use an electronic stylus instead of the keyboard. Alas, the 486 processor just wasn't up to serious character recognition, and IBM abandoned this option in later Thinkpads.

(The Transnote is interesting, but I don't quite like the idea of having a separate input device.)

Here's what would make Captain Kirk smile. Somebody comes out with a mass produced pad device. Minimum requirements:

• At least VGA-resolution display
• Stylus input
• Enough processing power and RAM to do serious handwriting recognition
• Mass storage of some kind (hard disk uses too much juice, but anything else is probably too expensive)
• Some kind of comm/expandability option. USB 2 would suffice.

That's it. Don't waste money on a color display -- I'm not going to use it to display graphics. And most of all, don't waste a lot of R&D money on software development. Leave that to the hackers. We've all seen what they can do if you just give them the right platform!

Ok, what about something now? Well, if you can't spring for a Transnote, there's always the Crosspad, which was an attempt to market the Transnote's input device as a separate product. No longer in production, but you can get them on ebay for about $150.

Using a PDA in school (not about formulas)

[iankerickson]

Back in school, the instant I learned about the Psion 3 I was sold. I bought one and used it as my main PC for writing papers and taking notes all through school. It was worth every penny. For less than the cost of upgrading/replacing my old Mac to something that could run a modern version of Office, I got a tool that could import and export the latest Word formats, never crashed, booted instantly, made ZERO noise, could be locked in my desk to prevent theft, fit inside my coat pocket, had a fairly fast GUI set of apps, and only needed recharged batteries about once a month. I have no idea where you could get a decent equation editor, but let me give you some generic advice:

• Look for portable, interpreted software: Java or Waba, Forth, Postscript, Python, maybe Perl (if you have the room), or even VB or JavaScript. Then you can download programs for those languages and run them on your PDA. The problem with PDAs is that they are ALL proprietary. WindowsCE models use various incompatible CPUs, and some apps work only on a certain OS versions (which usually requires a ROM upgrade to change), and models usually differ in screen depth, resolution, and the presence/absence of color, all of which can make short work of a casually written GUI app -- same story on the Psions. You have to score a version for your CPU and OS and hope that it doesn't have any show-stopper bugs. What's more likely? That someone wrote and maintained a bug free version of the exact software you're looking for that runs on your proprietary PDA? Or that a bored web developer wrote a Java applet along those lines that also runs on your PDA? With portable languages, you will have much more software available (especially freeware), and you can at least make an attempt to fix any bugs that bother you by editing the script or decompiled bytecodes. Newer PDAs are modern enough to host a compiler, but it takes too much space and time to be convenient to fix things, especially when you're "in the field". Recent Psions had Java built-in.

• Go cheap. The obsolesense curve you see on PCs is steeper for PDAs because they're relatively new. Also PDAs are easy to misplace, even easier to steal, fragile, and vulnerable to falls and liquid. Even if you're careful, other students will not be and may knock it off the desk, spill drinks on it, or use their mechanical pencil on the touch screen just to see what happens. Buy the best you can get for $99, maybe $199. If the worst happens a few months later, buy a better model for another $99. No one worth knowing will care how much your toys cost, except maybe thieves.

• Avoid proprietary components. Most PDAs use parts that should have a number of BMW logos on them to indicate their scarcity and cost. Most of the accessories will be available only from the OEM, mostly cables. See if you can find cables and parts at RadioShack or in JameCo catalogs instead (I was able to) -- the price difference is worth it. Also, get one with AA batteries, not a Lithium "powerpack" -- then you can buy a fresh set of replacements at any gas station or supermarket, if you have to. CompactFlash is the best storage medium right now (no batteries in the CF card, ATA pinout, FAT filesystem, works with anything).

• Buy spare parts: batteries, backup batteries (the watch battery on the underside), serial cables, AC adapter, CF cards, etc. If you can afford, get a spare PDA. If you do the previous step, this should be pretty inexpensive. You don't want to have pay overnight shipping to mail a needed replacement because something bad happened. Leave them at home in a safe place. There no point in losing them if your backpack gets stolen.

• Rule in favor of battery Life over performance. There's nothing fast or useful about a PDA that shuts itself off right when you need it. You can't rely on having AC power. Don't get anything that has less than 1 full day's charge. If you're using it for school, you're going to use it a lot and you might exeed that in a stretch.

• Backup to media, not (only) your PC. The tools that "sync" your PDA to your PC make your PDA dependant on that PC working properly. Get sync working then just use it to add software. If you backup to flash or CF, you can make multiple copies and lock the backup in a desk or someplace safe. If someone or something happens to your computer, your PDA data will still be safe. You can then upgrade the OS on your PC without worrying whether your sync software will still work (here's a hint: it usually won't).

• Password your PDA with a good pasword and keep current contact info into the "Owner" control panel. Most people are honest and will call you if they find your PDA. Don't use a password that can be "seen" by people nearby (like all numbers). You'll also want to learn the key combo to reset the password in case you get locked out. Usually, it wipes your data. But just insert your backup on CF and restore.

Other than those points (mostly a healthy mix of common sense and paranoia) a PDA is far superior to a notebook for student tasks. Unless you need essentially a portable workstation with a large screen for graphics, compilation, viewing PDFs or web pages, the CPU and disk space offered by laptops are overkill, especially given their weight, bulk, fragility, cost, short battery life, OS problems, and appeal to thieves. Beyond backups, a PDA doesn't take any system administration, virus or defragmenting tools, or any other maintenance. With good battery life, you can stop watching the clock and apply your full concentration to your work.